


Hell is for Children

by Capucine



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Character Interpretation, Canon Compliant, Canonical Child Abuse, Child Abuse, Cousins, Dysfunctional Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-17
Updated: 2017-03-17
Packaged: 2018-10-06 19:27:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10343001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Capucine/pseuds/Capucine
Summary: A oneshot about Damian and Mara's relationship.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is sort of a different take on it than the Titans comic, and yet the same. It's drawn from the Pat Benatar song 'Hell is for Children.'
> 
> Be forewarned about very toxic thought patterns from Damian.

He regarded Mara with disdain. If she were stronger, she wouldn’t get hurt so much—she wouldn’t get their grandfather’s wrath so often. And if her father weren’t such a dunce, so utterly mind-numbingly foolish, then she also wouldn’t get the treatment she did.

She pressed a hand against her face, which was utterly ridiculous, as she wasn’t even bleeding.

“Grandfather wouldn’t have to hit you if you weren’t so incompetent,” he informed her with a sneer. The hallways were red-tinted, long and open. They were alone now.

The look in her eyes was hate. The brown-green blazed at him, threatening to tear up. It was just like her to be hurt by _words_. It was astonishing she’d even made it this far.

He started to stalk past her, leaving her to her shame, when she whipped out her knife. “Fight me,” she hissed.

“I have no need,” Damian smirked, “You’ll simply fail some easy task again and save me the trouble of beating the sense into you.”

She screamed at him, and the rage reddening her face felt darkly right in his chest. He was winning. Even as she came at him with a knife, he was winning.

He drew his own knife, deflecting her blow. He attempted to strike her arm, but she dodged.

“What’s the matter?” he taunted, “Aren’t you going to fight me?”

She growled at him, letting her rage ruin her, and swung for his chest--

A stripe of pain opened up. Damian hadn’t dodged in time, and the pain was not terrible, but that she’d landed it was. A rage burned behind his eyeballs. She was _less_ than him, and he’d make certain she knew, even as it bubbled cold and hot in his chest.

“How dare you!” he shrieked at her. “I’ll carve you like the swine you are!”

He was more frenzied now, but that made him stronger. He’d always been stronger than Mara.

She snarled back, “Like the swine that took the blame for you mistake?! _You_ were the one who broke it!”

And Damian didn’t care that it was true, she made him. She made him do it by existing stupidly next to him, and how dare she blame him, and how dare she cut him. How _dare_ she act as though she had a right to be furious with him.

“Would you like me to break something else--” he’d started the sentence, but her scream cut him off. He’d slashed for her stupid face, and he’d actually hit. She’d been stupid enough to let him get so near her face.

She was holding her eye. At least she was actually bleeding this time. She was gasping air like her lungs didn’t work.

Damian spat on her. “Perhaps next time, you’ll reconsider attacking me.”

She was _crying_ , he realized, choked, hoarse sobs. And that only made him angrier. He hadn’t cried since he was five. She was a mere seven months younger than him at eight years old now.

She was disgustingly weak.

“Take your tears elsewhere,” he snapped, and then ran. He didn’t stay to see if he’d blinded her. Instead, he told himself she deserved it. Anyone who was weak deserved it.

If he wasn’t strong, he would deserve it.

That was how the world worked, and it did no good to look back on it with anything except satisfaction that he was not the weak one.

She would have done the same to him.

**Author's Note:**

> So, my feeling is...the Teen Titans Rebirth comic is extremely ham-handed in its handling of familial abuse/toxic families. And the actual mindsets going on are usual a bit more subtle, and I feel like Mara would suffer from similar issues to Damian.
> 
> However, in an extremely toxic, violent family, Damian would have likely felt that him being superior to Mara was not only a fact supported by his grandfather, but also a necessity. His thinking is extremely messed up here, but I feel it's neither inconsistent with canon or with the thought patterns of people in extremely toxic families.
> 
> It's a bit 'dog eat dog' due to the adults surrounding them, and I think it would be a special source of shame for Damian now that he's out. There's nothing like having participated in some way in the abuse of a sibling (or cousin) and having escaped in some way from the toxic family. It's not something people in that situation expect others to understand, even if they are both guilty and repentant about it.


End file.
